The Calibre 1887 automatic chronograph will be TAG Heuer's first in-house, high-volume movement. The announcement was made at the 25-year partnership celebrations between TAG Heuer and McLaren by the brand's CEO himself: Jean-Christophe Babin. So far, so good and interesting.
Then, something happens for which Babin himself is 'forced' to take the field and provide some additional information, beyond that given during the event itself - and which you can read in the issue of L'Orologio currently on newsstands. Babin does so by intervening in an online forum dedicated to the TAG Heuer brand, to respond directly to the doubts raised by fans of the House.
Babin's intervention was necessary to clarify the origin of the design of the new calibre, which is not original TAG Heuer, nor even Swiss. Hence the controversy. TAG Heuer, in fact, bought the design of a chronograph calibre produced in 1997 by none other than Seiko of Japan, for the first production of in-house movements. Had the company declared this at the outset, it would have saved itself a lot of controversy. And if an official explanation had been made public, rather than only through a forum of brand enthusiasts, the whole industry would have appreciated it more.
In any case, here are the explanations provided by Babin, translated into Italian for you. Source: Watchuseek.
"Yes, the new calibre 1887 is based on the SII (Seiko Instrumenst) TC78, developed and patented in 1997 and since then produced in very small quantities, in Japan, for Junghans and Seiko watches. The calibre we propose and announced last week in London is an evolution of this base. Although the general construction may seem similar at first glance, the TAG Heuer movement is very different in terms of components, dimensions and performance, not to mention the fact that it is produced in Switzerland, in TAG Heuer's own workshops in Cornol (Cortech - a TAG Heuer-owned company that already produced cases for TAG Heuer and Zenith) and La Chaux-de-Fonds (where our headquarters are also located and where we added 30,000 square metres of floor space last year for assembly and other manufacturing projects).
- Dimensions: it is wider (29.3 mm versus 28 mm of the Seiko) and thinner (7.13 mm versus 7.27 mm)
- Therefore, the plate, bridges and oscillating weight were significantly modified to allow for this evolution
- Its escapement is Swiss. Specifically developed by Nivarox, it improves precision and shock resistance
- The balance centring system (anti-shock) was also specially developed by Kif, a leading Swiss company specialising in balance centring systems
- Changing and developing a new freehanging pinion gear to improve timing and reliability over time
- New ball bearing fixing design of the oscillating mass to reduce the thickness of the movement
- Adjustments to pass the famous '60 TAG Heuer torture tests' in terms of precision, reliability, resistance to physical and thermal shocks, chemical aggression, etc.
Today we have 45 people at TAG Heuer working full-time on this project in Switzerland and 21 other suppliers for additional components, most of them Swiss. The total investment is several tens of millions of dollars.
I would therefore like to qualify this movement as a true in-house calibre produced by TAG Heuer, even though the industrial project was purchased from Seiko Instruments. Please note that the original Seiko calibre has always been appreciated by watchmaking experts.
To give even more energy to his message, Babin added a few days later: "Basically, since the Seiko Instruments patent of 1997, which is very recent when compared to other popular chronographs, we have industrialised and developed a medium-sized integrated movement (29.3mm/7.13mm) with a column wheel and oscillating pinion equipped with high-quality Swiss supplies. We have changed many of the key components, which we produce in-house (plate, bridges...) or purchase from a group of 22 suppliers, 21 of which are Swiss. Assembly is entirely done in-house. As you can see, it's a beautiful, well-built, uncompromising movement.
How to comment? There has been no official communication from TAG Heuer Italia about the new calibre and we at L'Orologio have yet to see it for ourselves. We are waiting to see the production of the calibre 1887 with our own eyes in order to be able to tell the full story.
Regarding the controversy over the use of a Japanese design, there is much to be said. For example, that Seiko is responsible for a number of fundamental inventions in mechanical watchmaking, such as the vertical friction chronograph clutch (now a standard shared by numerous Swiss brands) and the 'magic lever' automatic winding reverser, which is equally widespread among the most diverse brands, from Jaeger-LeCoultre to IWC to Panerai (as has been written about many times in the pages of L'Orologio). And, for example, that globalisation is a phenomenon that could not fail to involve Swiss watchmaking sooner or later. After all, according to Babin at the end of his speech, 'Capitalising (on knowledge already acquired, ed.), rather than re-inventing the wheel, is a good idea'.
